The final word came down about 9 p.m., almost an hour after the weather-threatened contest between the New York Red Bulls and D.C. United was scheduled to kick off.

At that point, MLS decided the Eastern Conference semifinal second leg would be pushed back to 7:30 p.m. ET Thursday.

NBC’s Kyle Martino got the final word from MLS executive vice president of competition Nelson Rodriguez. What Rodriguez said about the tough decision:

What was difficult was getting to this point quite frankly. All the indication we had was certainly for inclement weather, but certainly not a snowfall of this magnitude. We did our best to try to stay ahead of it, unfortunately we couldn’t, but in the end you can’t jeopardize the safety of the athletes, and the game itself deserves a better field for the magnitude of the game.

Martino then asked Rodriguez what the final, deciding factor had been:

Ultimately, the sensation that we were never going to get ahead of this storm. That ultimately we were going to be shoveling, and halftime we would be faced with the same thing, even if we could get [the game] started.”